Hunters of wild game frequently employ enclosures to provide the hunter with protection from the elements, as well as to camouflage the hunter's presence from potential game. Such hunting enclosures include permanent, semi-permanent and collapsible, transportable structures which are placed in or near the natural habitat of the game being hunted. Hunting blinds come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, often particularly adapted for a particular outdoor environment, and for the hunting of a particular type of wildlife. Such enclosures often take the form of tents which may be mounted on the ground or on an elevated platform, such as a tree stand.
While the use of such enclosures is well-known for protection of the occupant from both the elements and from observation, such enclosures create certain impediments to the actual process of shooting at wild game in the proximity of the enclosure. It is a desirable feature of such enclosures that the occupant be able to rapidly exit the enclosure, or to allow a portion of the hunter's weapon to protrude from an opening in the enclosure. One approach to this desired goal is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,717, issued to Horsmann, showing an enclosure having readily removable transparent covers for openings formed in the walls of the enclosure. Horsmann teaches an enclosure which is openable to permit the extension of a portion of the hunter's body and provides for sighting slots which may be easily covered and uncovered.
The openings taught by Horsmann, however, are intended to be removed to allow the hunter's body to partially protrude through the wall of the enclosure, and are not designed for penetration by a projectile. The coverings must be periodically opened and closed, which further introduces the problem of the transmission of human scent into the surrounding habitat.
A somewhat different approach is taught by Mueller, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,711. Mueller teaches a skeletal-type framework which is surrounded by camouflage netting. While Mueller specifically teaches that the netting is designed to be penetrable by a projectile, it is also apparent that the same netting, while obscuring the hunter from the view of wild game, readily permits the flow of air through the enclosure, allowing the scent of the hunter and his equipment to be transmitted to the surrounding air outside the enclosure.
The importance of concealing or redirecting human scent from the natural habitat of the wild game is demonstrated by Fargason in U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,913, which teaches the use of a venting system for hunting blinds which insures the dispersal of the scents from within a hunting blind to a substantial height above the ground. This technique, however, is only marginally effective, in that odors released from the hunting blind, even at a substantial height, can easily be redirected by atmospheric conditions to ground level. Also, even if such scents are successfully dispersed away from the hunting blind, wild game can frequently sense human scent from great distances, and will avoid such areas by a wide margin, making the use of ventilating pipes only slightly effective.
There is therefore a need for a hunting blind having scent containment features, and which further permits the utilization of a weapon from within the blind without the necessity for the hunter leaving the blind or breaching the integrity of the enclosure prior to operating a weapon.